With Venom leading the charge, Sony is now beginning to draft up plans for future Spider-Man spinoff movies set within its fledgling Marvel universe.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, today brings word that the studio has ordered a feature film based on Morbius, the Living Vampire. Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, the writers best known for Lionsgate’s recent Power Rangers reboot, have just submitted a screenplay to Sony, so this anti-hero flick is still very much in the formative stages of development.
However that may be, Morbius (real name: Dr. Michael Morbius) has been linked with a big-screen adaptation for years, so this announcement has been long on the cards. First hatched by Roy Thomas and Marvel artist Gil Kane, the undead anti-hero made his debut in Amazing Spider-Man #101, and has since become something of a cult favorite.
As THR notes, Morbius is introduced as a scientist “who suffered from a rare blood disease and attempted to cure himself…to disastrous results. He instead became afflicted with a condition that was a form of vampirism — the thirst for blood, along with fangs and super strength — and fought Spider-Man. Over time, however, he became a slightly heroic figure in his own right.”
It’s a character arc that draws comparisons to Ruben Fleischer’s Venom, which will see Tom Hardy wrestle the titular alien symbiote as Eddie Brock. Moreover, Morbius, the Living Vampire is inextricably tied to the great Peter Parker, and while it should be noted that Sony’s spinoffs won’t share any DNA with the Tom Holland-fronted Marvel films, Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama’s proposed offshoot will finally give Morbius his time in the limelight.
Further details on the story and/or direction of Sony’s Morbius spinoff weren’t disclosed at the time of writing, but we’ll keep you updated on the studio’s Spider-Man universe as it begins to coalesce.
